Investigation Finds No Widespread Problems in SVU

A months long independent investigation into the San Antonio Police Department's Special Victim's Unit has determined that there is no signs in institutional corruption, Newsradio 1200 WOAI reports.

"After reviewing more than ten-thousand felony sex crimes and family violence cases, and independent team of attorneys did not find any negative pattern or practice," City Manager Sheryl Sculley says.

Last year, and internal audit found that more than 130 SVU cases had been mishandled by one detective: Kenneth Valdez.  In an effort to be transparent, the City hired an outside attorney to review the department to figure out if it was just one detective or were there bigger problems.  It was led by Lisa Tatum, who is the former President of the State Bar of Texas.

"The team found no discernable pattern or practice of detectives mishandling cases," Sculley explains.

Police Chief William McManus says there were no wide spread changes made to SVU as a result of the investigation.  There have been tweaks, addressing a lack of oversight.

"The bottom line here is that this was not a systemic problem within SVU, it was a problem with one single individual who was not handling cases properly," he said.


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